Geniza Lab

Inventory of the books and furnishings of the Iraqi synagogue. (Cf. previous fragment.) Abū l-Faraj b. Abū Saʿd al-Miṣrī takes over the service of the Iraqi synagogue, receives from Maḥfūẓ what was listed before and many additional items. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Betrothal deed from 1185. According to Goitein, the bride and groom are also cousins. They are both extremely young, but still in the age of legal majority as can be seen in the expression of mutual consent in line 5. (Med. Soc. 3:29, no. 7)

Account of the expenditures, recorded by Judge Shemuel b. Saadya, made on one day in Dar al-Zayt, ca. 1182. The note is for building materials, utensils and labor. More than three years later, he started to list sums collected for clothes for the poor on the same leaf, but left the list incomplete after only two lines. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 362 #93)

3 entries in a court register. (a) Marriage portion of Munā the freedwoman of Ibn Futayḥ marrying Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham al-Tinnīsī. 10 + 30 dinars. Total value of dowry: 120 dinars. Cf. Bodl. MS heb. c 28/54. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

(b) Trousseau list. Bride: Sitt al-Furs bt. Abū l-Bayān al-Jābī (cf. Bodl. MS heb. f 56/43). Groom: Al-Munajjā b. Yosef. 10 + 25. Total value: 95 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

(c) Trousseau list. Dated: Sivan 1185 CE. Bride: Nasab bt. Abū l-Khayr al-Zayyāt. Groom: Munajjā Abū Saʿd al-Labbān. 10 + 25. Total value: 90 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

(b) Record of marriage conditions. Dated: Sivan of 1186 CE. Groom: Abū l-Barakāt b. Musallam al-Ṭabīb. Bride: Sitt al-ʿAlam bt. Netanel the Fifth. Delayed marriage payment: 10 dinars. Total of trousseau: 55 dinars, including a female slave valued at 15 dinars and books worth 5 dinars. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

(c) Continuation/ending of a record of marriage provisions (on verso, 90 degrees). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

(d) Legal testimony. Crossed out. Dated: Tuesday, 15 Sivan 1494 Seleucid, which is 1183 CE, under the reshut of Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Ghulayb b. Ṣadaqa al-Bilbaysī claims that Abū ʿImrān b. Abū Saʿīd al-Kohen still owes him 105 dinars out of the 345 dinars that he had deposited with him. Abū ʿImrān claims that he already gave all the money back. Signed: Shemuel ha-Levi b. Menashshe; Elʿazar. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

4 entries in a court register. (a) Record of marriage conditions. Groom: Abū Zikrī al-Kattanānī b. Aharon. Bride: Sitt al-Nās bt. Isḥāq. Delayed marriage payment: 10 dinars. Trousseau: total value 75 dinars (and Goitein checked the math!). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

4 legal records. (1) Taqwīm for the marriage between Avraham b. Abū l-Ḥasan Ibn al-Maghāzilī and Niʿam bt. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ḥazzan. Dated: Nisan 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Marriage payments: 5 + 20 = 25. Dowry = 44. See also T-S NS J287, a petition from the same woman to the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi (1170–95 CE), written on her behalf by her father. (2) Taqwīm for the marriage between Abū al-Mufaddal b. al-Rayyis Abū l-Najm and Sitt al-Nasib bt. Eliyyahu. Dated: Nisan 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. The objects are evaluated by ½, ⅓ and ¼. Marriage payments: 0 + 30 = 30. Dowry = 55 (which includes a female slave named Shams valued at 15 dinars). Total = 85. (3) Taqwīm for the marriage between Abū l-Ḥasan b. al-Shammāʿ and Sitt al-Thanā' bt. Abū l-Makārim אלתווזי. Dated: Av 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Marriage payments: 0 + 15 = 15. Dowry = 33. Total = 48. (4) Taqwīm for the marriage between Munajjā b. Hiba al-Ṭabīb and Ḥasab bt. Abū ʿUmar. Dated: Tishrei 1498 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Marriage payments: 5 + 20 = 25. Dowry = 15. Total = 40. (Information from Goitein’s index cards.)

Four dowry lists. (1) Taqwīm (dowry list) for the marriage between Hiba b. Faḍā'il al-Ḥazzān and Riḍā bt. Tamīm al-Parnas. The dowry total is 66 dinars plus one-half of a house. Marheshvan, 1186. (2) Taqwīm (dowry list) for the marriage between Maʿālī b. Naṭīrā and Sitt al-Bayt bt. Makārim al-Parnas. The dowry total is 23 dinars. Marheshvan, 1186. (3) Taqwīm (dowry list) for the marriage between Abū Manṣūr b. Yiṣḥaq Ibn al-Dhahabī and Sitt al-Karam bt. Abū l-Barakāt. The dowry total is 180 dinars (includes jewelry, clothing, bedding, and copper), plus 7/24th of a house in Cairo. Kislev, 1186. (4) Taqwīm (dowry list) for the marriage between Abū l-Maḥāsin and Sitt al-Naba' bt. Menashshe. The dowry total is 140 dinars and includes clothing, jewelry, bedding, and copper. Tevet, 1186. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Engagement agreement from 1184. The date of marriage was set for the month of Elul in the following year, almost two years after the document was composed. The bride was orphaned from her father and there is no mention of a representative on her behalf as is common in many engagement agreements. This might indicate that she represented herself and that she was mature. However, the fact that two year would elapse before the marriage can take place might indicate that she was still rather young; see Goitein, Med. Soc. Vol. 3, pp. 92. } The father of the groom vows to take care of all the bride's expenses for five years after the marriage. It is possible that the groom was too young and the bride's family was concerned that he would be unable to provide sufficiently for the bride and thus sought to place this responsibility on his father. There is no mention of any fine on either party in the event that the marriage will not take place. Most of the contract is written in Aramaic and Hebrew but the conditions prevalent at the time in Egypt were written in Arabic and perhaps this indicates that they originated in the surrounding Muslim environment (in ENA NS 21.6 there are conditions in both Arabic and Hebrew and Friedman suggests that the conditions that have not yet won wider acceptance were written in Arabic; see Friedman, Polygyny, pp. 56-59).

An engagement agreement from the 18th of Tevet. The marriage is set a month and four months afterward. The bride is represented by her father, who also receives the engagement from the groom. Here, as elsewhere, there is no mention of a fine if any of the sides would cancel the engagement or the marriage would not be conducted at the agreed upon date.

Account of revenue and expenditure for Tishrei, Ḥeshvan, and Ṭevet. Dated: 1495 Seleucid, which is 1183–84 CE. This extensive accounting is written on two and a half leaves of the notebook of Shemuel b. Seʿadya. It lists the last expenditures for Tishri, and then the account of revenues for Heshvan, Kislev, and Tevet. It contains details of the rent from 22 apartments and compounds, which totals 715 dirhams. Several payments do not cover the whole period of three months, and refer to shorter periods. Then comes a very large list of expenditures reflecting large-scale reconstruction and repair operations. Involves Abū l-Bayān the collector. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 350 #89.)

Folio from a court ledger. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 4 Shevaṭ 1496 Seleucid, which is January 1185 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Abū Naṣr b. Abū l-Khayr claims to have given to the female broker Sitt al-Dalāl bt. Abū ʿUmar two books belonging to his father, one of the Torah and one of Ketuvim, in order to offer them for sale. She claimed to him that they would fetch only 7.5 dinars and obtained permission to sell them to her own son Abū l-Maḥāsin b. Yefet for this price, taking 1/3 dinar as brokerage. Six years later, he learned the Torah alone was worth 20 dinars. Abū l-Maḥāsin is questioned about this. The story continues at length on verso (mentioning at one point the two witnesses Abū l-Bayān Ibn al-Ahuv (ZL) and Saʿīd al-Mawṣilī). This portion still needs examination. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

The main document is a liturgy. On the margin a strip from another document- a ketuba written by Mevorakh b. Natan (1150-1181 CE) was bound together. AA

Partially preserved 11th century copy three of three letters written by Saadya in the course of the 921-922 calendar controversy between Palestinians and Babylonians. There is an address in Arabic script. The letters are addressed to Saadya’s disciples Shelomo, Ezra and ʿEli in Fustat and recount the events of the Palestinian calendar declaration by Ben Meir and the Babylonian’s reaction to it. Saadya urges his addressees to uphold the dates of the Babylonians, and ensure that Jews do not eat leaven on Passover and desecrate the Day of Atonement. (Information from Rustow, Stern, The Jewish Calendar Controversy of 921-22, in Stern, S and Burnett, C, (eds.) Time, Astronomy, and Calendars in the Jewish Tradition. (pp. 79-95). Brill: Leiden, 2013. See also Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 17 and Goitein notes linked below, and the Penn Catalog.)

Letter from Se’adya b. Yosef to his students in Fustat. Original letter was written in February or March 922. The date of this copy is unknown. Describes the events of summer and fall 921, when Se’adya was in Aleppo and heard about Aaron b. Meir’s intention to change the calendar. Also describes the Iraqi scholars’ opposition to his plans. Two pages (Bodl. MS Heb 56/82-83). (Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, Doc. #6) VMR

See Bodl. MS heb. f 56/82